Several weeks ago, Jared had a 4-day weekend. Knowing it might be our last long weekend for a while, we booked a pet-friendly Motel 6 and drove down to Savannah. Our first stop was a hole-in-the-wall restaurant serving classic southern dishes. Jared ordered a barbecue sandwich, and I got catfish. We took our lunch to Skidaway Island for a picnic and a nature walk. The terrain in that part of the country is unlike any we'd seen before! It's a cool combo of palm trees, Spanish moss, deciduous trees, prairie, and swamp. I think the nature walks were my favorite part of this trip. That's so me though--go to one of the most beautiful historic cities in the country, and come away most impressed with the quiet swampland on the outskirts of it. I like my wide-open spaces.
Savannah in the day is beautiful, but we really came to love the city at night-time. Our first drive through the city was crowded and filled with cross-dressing green men. We went the weekend before St. Patrick's Day, and Savannah definitely draws a crowd for that! When we went back in the evening for dinner at the Pink House and a Ghost Tour, it felt like a step back in time. The Pink House is the first picture in this post. It's one of the oldest homes in the city, dating back to...well I don't even know when. The early days of America for sure. Savannah is known to be the most haunted city in America, and the Pink House is one of the supposedly haunted buildings. It does have an eerie feel to it, but it's also this crazy beautiful experience. I ordered the BLT salad with sugared bacon and fried green tomatoes. It was definitely my favorite dish of the trip. 5/5 stars, would recommend. We had to eat super quickly and then sprint to make it to our ghost tour. The guide was really chipper and conversational as she walked us around the historic district, pointing out buildings and telling ghost stories. I appreciated this. A ghost tour was #1 on Jared's list. He's all about that. I on the other hand get easily spooked and often have a hard time sleeping after stuff like this. But the guide kept it upbeat enough that I was never creeped out, and Jared got his ghost fix in. The perfect balance.
We stayed at a Motel 6 a half-hour drive from downtown Savannah. Partly because everything else was booked up, but mostly because we're cheapskates and knew that they don't charge extra for pets. This seemed like the perfect opportunity to do an instagram post mocking hotel sponsorships. I did a series of posts in their "luxurious" hot tub, all-white bathroom, and in front of the Motel 6 sign. It was a joke, but Motel 6 contacted me after I posted and offered me a free night stay for posting about them! What a glamorous social influencer life I'm living.
Most of the activities we did on this trip were dog-friendly. We always had Savvy with us during the day, and then in the evening we'd drop her off at the hotel to watch TV/sleep while we went and did human things. There was one time when we got a
scathing hate letter on our windshield because we left Savvy in the car for an hour while we went and explored a couple shops downtown. Disclaimer: we're extremely good dog owners. Savvy lives a higher quality of life than probably 95% of dogs. Jared basically treats her like his actual human child, and since I work from home, she gets constant human companionship and attention, and 2-3 long walks/swims/playtimes a day. We wouldn't have left her in the car unless we felt 100% ok about it, and we did. It was 70 degrees outside and breezy, we were parked in the shade, we left all the windows cracked, and we knew that (a) Savvy loves the car, and (b) it was her nap time so she'd be happy to sleep on the front seat. So anyway, we explored some art stores and then went right back to the car to find a note in girly handwriting telling us exactly what kind of f-ing people we are and where we should go for leaving our dog in the car. Even though we knew we had done nothing wrong, we still felt SO BAD for like the rest of the day. Who knew my first troll would be a car-note troll instead of an Internet troll? Nothing like a fat dose of dog-mom shaming to make you feel easy breezy beautiful.
The last thing we did in Savannah before driving home was visit Bonaventure Cemetery. If you ever visit Savannah, this is a MUST. It's a bit of a drive from downtown, but it is so beautiful. I think the pictures speak for themselves pretty well. Next I'll do a post about Hilton Head. Our trip lasted from Saturday morning until Monday evening. We were mostly in Savannah, but spent a good chunk of Sunday at Hilton Head. More on that next time!
